I need a dishwasher!

[lach]

Can anyone recommend a dishwasher? Our old one was nothing but trouble, and died and we're finally in a place where we can replace it.

The only specific requirement we have is that we need a stainless steel interior. A third level cutlery rack would be nice: I've never had one and they seem nice. But that's not a requirement. Obviously, less expensive is better but I don't think we necessarily have a set top amount: I'd rather pay more and get something that will last 10 years. (Though we tried that last time and that didn't work out.)

[artemis33]

Bosch all the way!

We put one in at our old house when the ancient one started giving out and I LOVED it! I miss that thing! At this house the dishwasher is nothing special and actually kind of annoying the way the racks work, so I'm looking forward to replacing it when we can - with a Bosch, no doubt!

[jenfl]

We got a Kenmore Elite a few months ago that we've been really happy with. Stainless interior, quiet, and the layout of the interior fits our dishes really well.

[lach]

Thanks, everyone! We were looking at Bosch, but we've heard some things about their reliability lately that's giving us pause. We've heard good things about the Kenmore Elite, but had such awful service at Sears when we bought our fridge that DH is very anti-Sears right now! But we may end up going that way anyway. We're also looking at the Miele ones.

[LISSA~K]

We're looking for a new dishwasher also, and I wanted to chime in that Consumer Reports rates Bosch as having the least repair problems of any brand, tied with Whirlpool and closely followed by Hotpoint, Miele, Kenmore and Amana. They seem to stick to recommending Whirlpool and Kenmore the most so we are probably going to end up with a whirlpool from Lowe's...
They also recommended skipping stainless steel interiors, claiming that most plastic interior models performed at least as well and typically cost about $100-$200 less.

I can look up ratings on a specific model of most brands if you are interested. HTH!

[lach]

Ooh, thank you!

Interesting info on the stainless interior. We have very hard water, and that turns the white interiors a really nasty yellow/brown. Which just always makes me feel like it's all really dirty, even though all you really have to do is a vinegar run every few months to get it white again. There's just something about opening your dishwasher and seeing everything all rusty-brown.

I'm not sure why Whirlpool fell off our list: I'll ask DH. I have a feeling we'll probably end up getting the Kenmore, after we really sit down and crunch numbers.

[bigteamug]

I've always wondered about the safety of plastic dishwasher interiors, myself - if you think how many mamas get rid of reduce plastic dishes and toys, I would think the dishwasher to be a bigger issue - it's not like a plastic dish that you can opt to hand wash, it is always being heated super hot.

So for me, I will always opt for stainless inside....

[mags]

Do NOT get an electrolux! It has a SS interior and is supposedly environmental, BUT it does a horrible job of cleaning. It is so bad that it does not even wash out all of the DW detergent out of the compartment. We've had to resort to tossing in spoonfuls of detergent into the main compartment after loading up the machine instead of using the detergent compartment. It's so annoying. I liked my frigidaire better than the electrolux. Mil has a frigidaire with SS interior and it's great.

[LISSA~K]

Originally Posted by bigteamug

I've always wondered about the safety of plastic dishwasher interiors, myself - if you think how many mamas get rid of reduce plastic dishes and toys, I would think the dishwasher to be a bigger issue - it's not like a plastic dish that you can opt to hand wash, it is always being heated super hot.

So for me, I will always opt for stainless inside....

That's a good point, unfortunately for me it seems like those with ss interiors are way out of my price range, so I'm stuck with the plastic. And while the offgassing can't be safe, I've actually heard that heat is an effective way at speeding up offgassing, so perhaps after a few loads a new dishwasher looses some of that nastiness. Just a hopeful thought...

[fierrbugg]

Originally Posted by lach

Thanks, everyone! We were looking at Bosch, but we've heard some things about their reliability lately that's giving us pause. We've heard good things about the Kenmore Elite, but had such awful service at Sears when we bought our fridge that DH is very anti-Sears right now! But we may end up going that way anyway. We're also looking at the Miele ones.

We purchased a stainless steel (inside and out) Bosch 3 years ago, and if you've been looking at them you know they are a bit more expensive than your run of the mill dishwasher. Dh did all of the research including Consumer Reports and decided that we should pay the extra cash because we wanted something that would last a long time. And we did love that stupid dishwasher for about 2.5 years. But last year it died - mid-cycle. When dh pulled off the kick plate he found that the wiring harness had melted together. Then I did some research and found that they've recalled several models for the same issue (fire hazard) - and also paid for repairs. Unfortunately they have yet to recall mine, and I've been without a dishwasher since May-ish of last year. Money has been tight and we don't have the extra income right now to bring someone in to fix it.

Needless to say we will NEVER purchase another Bosch appliance again. But that's just my $.02.

Idk much about the LG's but we've been fantasy shopping them lately - they are stainless inside and I think at least one model has the cutlery rack. I can't attest to their reliability, but they sure are pretty.

[lach]

Originally Posted by fierrbugg

We purchased a stainless steel (inside and out) Bosch 3 years ago, and if you've been looking at them you know they are a bit more expensive than your run of the mill dishwasher. Dh did all of the research including Consumer Reports and decided that we should pay the extra cash because we wanted something that would last a long time. And we did love that stupid dishwasher for about 2.5 years. But last year it died - mid-cycle. When dh pulled off the kick plate he found that the wiring harness had melted together. Then I did some research and found that they've recalled several models for the same issue (fire hazard) - and also paid for repairs. Unfortunately they have yet to recall mine, and I've been without a dishwasher since May-ish of last year. Money has been tight and we don't have the extra income right now to bring someone in to fix it.

Needless to say we will NEVER purchase another Bosch appliance again. But that's just my $.02.

Idk much about the LG's but we've been fantasy shopping them lately - they are stainless inside and I think at least one model has the cutlery rack. I can't attest to their reliability, but they sure are pretty.

We have heard similar stories, which is why we decided against the Bosch. That is really ridiculous that happened to you! We had a similar thing happen with out Asko (never heard of it? There's a reason. They're trying to break into the US market, and we got a good deal on ours. It died after about 2 years and has been a nightmare to fix!) Being without a dishwasher sucks.

[fierrbugg]

Originally Posted by lach

We have heard similar stories, which is why we decided against the Bosch. That is really ridiculous that happened to you! We had a similar thing happen with out Asko (never heard of it? There's a reason. They're trying to break into the US market, and we got a good deal on ours. It died after about 2 years and has been a nightmare to fix!) Being without a dishwasher sucks.

check - no Askos.

It DOES suck. The funny thing is that when I called their hotline to see if our dishwasher was on the recall list (hope against hope since it'd been 6 months) - the girl told me she was 'happy' to inform me that our machine wasn't on the recall list. Yeah, thanks. Of course my mother likes to rub it in that she's had the same GE dishwasher for almost 10 years and it works just fine. Never mind that if you want to have a conversation, you have to yell over the racket it makes when it's running. That was one nice thing about the Bosch - it was quiet. If only there wasn't that pesky catching on fire thing.

[RiverSky]

Originally Posted by mags

Do NOT get an electrolux! It has a SS interior and is supposedly environmental, BUT it does a horrible job of cleaning. It is so bad that it does not even wash out all of the DW detergent out of the compartment.

My guess is that you got a lemon and that you shouldn't lump all electroluxes together. I only say this because my BIL and SIL have a fancy Bosch dishwasher with SS interior and every type of fancy setting possible, and it COMPLETELY doesn't work. The dishes tend to come out dirtier than they went in. They have have a service plan for it from the place they bought it from and have had all sorts of repair people come out and supposedly fix it, and the thing has NEVER once cleaned a load of dishes. My BIL and SIL don't seem to realize how awfully it works, but I have spent much time on vacations at their house, prerinsing all the dishes, very lightly loading it and using a good d/w detergent, trying various different types of settings and the thing never ever works. I think they should chuck it out and start over.

Anyway, my advice is not brand (we've had fantastic luck with two different reasonably priced Kenmores, both with built in garbage disposal, a fantastic feature, one of them being a portable model) but to get a really REALLY good service agreement with it, to help protect you against the rare lemon you might come across.

[Ola_]

We got a KitchenAid dishwasher a couple of years ago and it's very good. Much better than the Kenmore it replaced (I swear that I washed more things by hand than the dishwasher, but it was a few years old). We bought it based on the Consumer Reports recommendation at the time - it has a stainless interior, and a third rack at the top for extra cutlery. It's not very fancy (i.e. for the timed delay it only has the option for 4 hours, nothing else) but it has the features we need (different wash/dry settings, etc).

A couple of years ago we also got a portable (but full size, just with different water/power hookups) Maytag when we were renting. It worked really well!

[bigteamug]

I have to agree about the bosch's. the house we bought has one, and it doesn't clean the dishes well. the rental we last had had a kenmore portable, and it worked beautifully. Mind you, we have to use the phosphate free detergents here, and it still worked beautifully.

I have also heard, though, that Bosch's need to be installed correctly, and a bit differently from other DWs, in terms of the drain hose height, etc. so that might affect things as well - I heard that the dirty water will drain back to the washer, which sure doesn't help things any....